New Philanthropic Student Club at the G.L. Middle School

Greenwood Lake Middle School Principal Jeffrey Golubchick spoke at the Greenwood School Board meeting on Wed., Dec. 13 about how the school had recently celebrated “Kindness Week,” which began on Mon., Dec. 4. Among the events occurring during the week was an assembly to introduce www.Myface.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping transform the lives of people with facial disfigurements.

Principal Jeffrey Golubchick introduced a new students club at the school. He said that one of the things that have been most striking over the past two months is that a group of fifth graders started with an idea just to raise money for Hurricane relief because they had family members who were affected by the hurricane earlier this year. Together, in total, for hurricane relief and for www.Myface.Org, they have raised over $1,800. Golubchick said that their success necessitates making them a formal club at the school.

Students involved sought ideas for philanthropic causes from other students around the school and they were in attendance at the Board meeting to present their ideas and request that they be given club status at the school.

Lakers Kids Club Student Presentation

A student addressed the School Board at the meeting saying, “Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. We are the Laker girls and our group came to life by a little idea that we came up with at the lunch table. We brought our idea to Mr. Golubchick and he was more than willing to help us. We have raised money for two organizations.”

“We have raised $1,600 for hurricane victims and approximately $350 for www.Myface.org. We hope to become a club so that we can expand our group for more ideas and help more organizations,” said student Alexa Hansen.

School Superintendent Dr. Steven Cohen said that he thought that the club is a wonderful idea. The Board passed a motion to formalize the club.

Second Budget Presentation

Superintendent Dr. Steven Cohen introduced a second budget presentation to the Board, explaining that over 80 percent of a public education budget is human resources. He said that everything else such as curriculum, sports and technology over which the Board has control is a very small part of the budget. One of the only items that they could control is class size and that is usually an undesirable option.

Director of Curriculum and Technology, Sara Hadden, addressed the instructional programs that were covered under the budget, programs such as reading and writing workshops, Singapore Math, Science 21, Project Lead the Way, Spanish, and New Explorations. She said that cursive writing was being introduced at the request of parents. Technological items in the budget include Smartboards, Chromebooks and iPads.

“We have a large influx of English language learning students and this year we have three new students who are new to the country and do not speak English,” said Hadden.

She spoke of a Google device that can translate in real time that is coming out in October which could be included in the budget. Professional development programs that would be covered under the budget include Gravity Goldberg, East West Math and consultants for ELA.

Hadden said that there were ten clubs at the Middle School and for the 2018-19 school year and that the District was going to add more at the elementary school level.

In terms of staffing, Hadden said that one Spanish teacher has been added and that next year they would like a full-time English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher as well as a full-time Spanish teacher supporting ESL.

Next Board Meeting

The next board meeting will be held on Wed., Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. at the middle school library, located 1247 Lakes Rd. in Monroe.

The G.L. Lakers Kids Club was formally named as a club at the G.L. Middle School by the Board of Education. The students plan to focus on philanthropic endeavors to help others. Photo credit: Warwick Valley Dispatch/Shelley R. Clapper

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The Warwick Valley Dispatch, a weekly newspaper, was founded in 1885 by George F. Ketchum and has been in the same family for its entire 130 years of providing local news to Town of Warwick residents. The newspaper is printed on a 1930s web press in the Dispatch building, located at 2 Oakland Avenue in Warwick, NY.